Chicano

The HBO cable television network premiered "Walkout," a film based on the 1968 protest

by thousands of Mexican American students from five East Lost Angeles high schools.

On March 27, some 40,000 high school students in Southern California walked out to protest of

anti-immigration legislation. Director Edward James Olmos was right when he said the struggle

for equality and civil rights is far from over. Back in 1968, Latino students were fed up with

discrimination in the school system and lack of equal opportunities. The stedents came together

and led a multi-school walkout that became part of the rising Chicano movement. "Walkout"

shows how students organized walkouts after lobbying the school board for improved facilities,

bilingual education, revised textbooks and the ability to speak Spanish in class without being

reprimanded.

The youth-led movement, inspired by the civil rights movement, also demanded

implemention of a curriculum that included Latin American history, and elimination of janitorial

work as punishment. "Our schools are the back of the bus," yelled one student leader in the

movie. The walkouts were peaceful demonstrations that erupted into unnecessary acts of violence

when an overzealous and aggressive racist police force beat and arrested unarmed students.

An outraged community was awakened and a fight for justice was born that first got parents

involved, then community leaders, eventually forcing the school board to pay attention.

In the end the Chicano movement produced real changes, increasing Latino college enrollment by

nearly 25 percent two years after the protest.

Moctesuma Esparza, who produced the